Four Horsemen
by dutchesscourtney
Summary: AU A dark ficlet casting the Shitennou as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Senshi v. Shitennou. Complete.
1. Pestilence

_AN: While researching for another story, I came up with this idea. Surely its been done before…? First in a four part series. If you like happy, this ain't going to be it.  
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_I do not own the characters._

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**Four Horsemen**: _Pestilence_

Neo Queen Serenity leaned heavily on her staff in the cold rain. Her once pristine white dress, edged in the finest lace, was in shreds, tattered and torn – now an almost unrecognizable shade of sooty grey. She raised her brilliant blue eyes and looked across the smoky and soaked battlefield – they were still there. Like a nightmare she couldn't wake up from, the four men remained stationary astride the fearsome creatures. In another lifetime, they had been called the Shitennou – the Four Kings. A malevolent spirit had turned them into something unrecognizable.

_What a fool I've been…_

She would never know what prompted her to trust humans...what had kept her on this planet all this time.

_Love._

What a ridiculous emotion. Love was not going to save anyone today. The man she had cared so deeply for had turned on her, his people, and the world.

There was only one hope left now.

The Senshi.

Although they had been at war all night and for weeks on end, their strength – the sacred power of four young women – was the last chance before the end of the world, the end of civilization, the end of an era.

The Apocalypse waited in the rising sun, poised to obliterate their way of life forever.

With everything possible opposing them, with all hope lost, the quartet stood stoically at their regent's side…behind them, the destroyed remains of their home, the once proud Crystal Tokyo. If there was a story that would survive this day, legend would tell how the foursome did not back down or hesitate.

A standoff.

And then smoothly, gracefully, like a stream down a mountainside, the first rider strode out, on a horse so white that it gleamed in the pale darkness of the early morning.

Pestilence.

The gauntlet was thrown.

The rain stopped and turned into a dense mist around them, surrounding everyone, and obscuring the line between ground and sky.

Serenity summoned her strength and nodded to the aqua haired senshi on her left. Although she could not bear it – would not admit that she was sending a friend out to certain death, the Queen did what was required of her position. The slight girl stepped out of the ranks. Her companions continued staring on straight ahead. No one needed to say what was at stake on this day.

The man who rode the white steed was beautiful. More effeminate than his broad shouldered colleagues who waited on the dark hillside, his silky blonde hair flew wildly behind him, his blue eyes intent on the pale woman in front of him. In his hand, he steadily gripped a standard, with a tattered banner hanging from it.

The warrior called Mercury instantly worked out her disadvantage. He was a rider, mounted on a powerful horse, and she walked. Her knee high boots crunched the debris of war beneath her – bodies, weapons, a destroyed landscape. In stacked blue heels, she walked steadily forward – maintaining the same consistent pace as if she was taking an afternoon stroll in the garden.

She was the solider of Wisdom. Of Rationality.

She was Princess to Mariner Castle, so many miles away.

Deep down, as he bore steadily upon her, she recognized his face, but couldn't understand why. What if things had been different? What if, in another life, they had not been mortal enemies? Could they have been something more? Her mind didn't want to recognize the possibility.

Hearing the thundering hooves, she called forth the lute…the harp on which she could play the chords of a tidal wave if she chose to.

But would it be enough?

As she continued walking, she detached herself completely from the situation. With one last look at the hill, at her Queen, she let go of the very essence of herself, the Mercury Crystal. She felt it float free.

Across the field, the white horse picked up speed until it was galloping towards her. She could practically feel the heat from its flaring nostrils. In a fluid motion, the rider brought down the standard like a lance and pointed it at her.

She couldn't let him cross over to her friends…to everything she loved in the world. She wouldn't allow him to touch the weapon to the ground and start an epidemic. Summoning all the power she had, the girl once called Ami, waited as long as she dared, and then moved to play a special chord on the lyre, one she had never plucked before.

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

The valley began to shake, and over the crest of a hill, created from nothing, a tidal wave appeared. Like a tsunami, a powerful surge of water poured over the land. Serenity and the other senshi were helpless to do anything but watch as their beloved friend's attack swept through and carried everything in its path away.

When the mighty torrent finally cleared, the man and the white horse were gone. The battlefield was once again clean – barren of any signs of battle, and the girl had disappeared like mist in the sun.

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_AN: Let me know if I should keep going._


	2. War

_AN: Thanks readers! War ahead. Listen to the Holst's Mars from the Planets suite to get in the mood for this one._

_I do not own the characters._

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**Four Horsemen:** _War_

Silence filled the deserted area, until it was broken by a new sound. The crimson horse with red eyes pranced and pawed at the ground with sharpened hooves, scraping up massive mounds of the barren earth below. Steam rose violently out of the largest horse's flaring nostrils. The rider sat unafraid, smiling wickedly, waiting for some unknown signal to go forward.

The Queen nodded heavily again, shaking, unable to control the shiver that coursed through her body. The young woman with raven hair on her right stepped forward, prepared to go on the offensive. As Serenity watched her friend and companion walk away, she admitted to a moment of hopelessness. The next foe stood for something she could not understand or grasp the concept of…

This was War.

The senshi from Mars strode angrily ahead in her red stilettos. She hated this situation – that they had been forced to this end with their backs against the wall. Like her mother before her, Neo Queen Serenity had come from a long line of peace, understanding, and intelligent communication. The blonde regent had neglected to listen to her friends, and had remained optimistic until this most desperate of moments. The enemy did not believe in negotiation or treaties, in what was fair and right. Their foe did not care care about feelings or millions of innocent lives in the balance.

Although they had been fighting the unknown opponent for months, there had only been skirmishes, minor battles, and clashes.

The look in the eyes of the handsome rider across the field told a much different story. His cool sapphire gaze spoke of annihilation and decimating entire populations. His face conveyed images of raping and pillaging and complete destruction. He promised the war of the ages. The war to end all wars. She narrowed her own amethyst glare in his direction and smiled smugly at the horrific beast that was raging towards her.

While her teammates might shy away from the grittier elements of their duties, the former priestess welcomed them with open arms. It was in her fiery nature to pick a fight and she never felt more alive then when she took down an enemy.

And the enemy that faced her now could take everything she had, everything she cared for, everything that could be…

Never mind, she was spoiling for a challenge, desperate for the confrontation. She closed her eyes and listened to the tempo pounding in her blood. It sang to her – a sweet siren's song.

She looked up and saw the nameless rider carried a brutal sword in his hand. Let him come. She was unafraid and unconcerned with his massive charger the color of spilled blood that was bearing down upon her.

She had a secret weapon.

She was the Soldier of War. Of Flame. Of Passion.

From deep within her soul, she called upon the Mars Crystal, entrusted to her as Princess of her home planet. She remembered reading into a fire one night in the castle of Phobos-Deimos…a prophecy that foretold of her own destiny.

Those who were watching the scene suddenly felt a hot breeze stir around them. Although they had been previously soaked by the rain, as if in a giant oven, they were instantly dried.

As if drawing an imaginary arrow tightly across a bow, Mars closed her eyes and concentrated on the motion.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

Just as water had immersed the area minutes earlier, the roar of a wild conflagration drowned out any other sound. All shades of scarlet, amber, and ruby inexplicably lit up the battlefield. The flames grew, hotter and brighter than magma spewing from a volcano, a towering inferno of fire reaching up to the heavens above. The wildfire raged on, with embers smoking and sparking like fireflies on a summer evening, burning impossibly out of nothing and then stopped suddenly. Through the haze and heat and charred earth, the rider and stallion were gone.

Like the mystical and majestic phoenix, the girl was also gone, burned away to nothing.

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_AN: Great practice for me in these, I don't usually write so dark and violent._


	3. Famine

_AN: So, maybe one day I'll do some backstory of what led to this fight, but this series was always intended as a short writing project. No offense to the fans of the Outers, but they are not going to appear. Endymion will, but you might not like my plans for him._

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**Four Horsemen**: _Famine_

_"She is raging, she is raging  
And a storm blows up in her eyes…"_

_**- Running to Stand Still, U2**_

Was this how it would end?

Would the final battle leave her utterly alone?

Would everyone have to be sacrificed to see the continuation of the world?

How could she live with the guilt of it?

How would she wake up every day knowing what had taken place on this day?

As the afterglow faded from Mars's outburst and was replaced once again by the cool wind, Serenity considered her options. There were few. She knew the Senshi's sacrifices were their own choice and there was nothing she could do to change their decision. An unexpected sound caught the regent's attention.

The tallest of her protective quartet cracked her knuckles impatiently, and dug a booted foot into the ground. Suited in brilliant Kelly green highlighted with feminine shades of pink, the senshi from Jupiter had long ago passed the point of anger, of hatred, of sadness and arrived promptly at revenge. She desperately longed to take down the next rider – an act of retribution for the lives of the friends who had gone before her.

As if he sensed her emotion from across the void, the next rider urged his horse forward. The stallion reared wildly and galloped forward across the landscape. The beast moved smoothly along, looking as if it was carved of obsidian, barely discernible from the dark landscape. The man atop the animal had long mahogany hair which rippled around his shoulders.

"Go." Serenity struggled bravely to keep the emotion out of her voice.

It an ironic gesture, Jupiter's high ponytail swing perkily from side to side as she made her way across the barren battlefield. What could possibly be left to face? What new and strange horror would try and defeat them now?

The Jovian senshi had a strange thought as she jogged forward, one of her childhood. Before terrible times had befallen the universe, before loved ones had perished, before darkness had all but taken over the world, she remembered… What a happy little girl she had been, finding joy in the oddest of places – the kitchen. In her home, in distant Castle Io, she could spend hours cooking, losing all track of time creating culinary masterpieces for friends and family.

Looking up, she realized the rider sought to destroy that most simplest of human desires – to eat. Every person had the right to nourish themselves and she wasn't about to let that stop. It was more than just food; the act of breaking bread with others was one of the oldest traditions. It was one of the things that separated humans from the wild creatures they shared the earth with.

She would not allow it. She was the Solider of Protection.

She increased her speed and looked ahead at her challenger, the bringer of Famine.

He silently looked to the sky, at the stars overhead, and back towards the brunette striding towards him. Was it her imagination, or did his expression change when he saw her?

She idly wondered what he saw in the heavens… What he could foretell from the struggle that continued endlessly here on earth today… Would the battle between Good vs. Evil ever find an answer?

She barely noticed as storm clouds appeared ominously above, obliterating the rider's view of the sky. She did not hear the crack of thunder that threatened to split the very atmosphere above. She did not smell the rising ozone permeating the air.

She did not hesitate to gather her strength and focus it into one single point of energy – her Jupiter Crystal.

From the golden tiara perched on her forehead, an antenna rose steadily upwards.

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

In a blink of an eye, intense electricity crackled and a single bolt charged down towards the earth, seeking to destroy the rider and horse. The bright light found its target, and the pair fell to the ground, steaming at the thousands of volts of energy which had passed through their bodies.

In the same instant, the Jovian senshi collapsed... Like the surge of electricity which had touched down, she fell to the earth - utterly spent, used up from her efforts.

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_AN: A shout out to my other SM stories. If you like happier versions of the Senshi and Shitennou, try The Greatest Generation._


	4. Death

_AN: Don't own._

**Four Horseman: **_ Death_

_I never meant to start a war  
You know I never wanna hurt you  
Don't even know what we're fighting for_

_Why does love always feel like a battlefield  
A battlefield, a battlefield?_

**_- Battlefield, Jordin Sparks_**

As the last crack of rolling thunder echoed across the landscape, the young woman with long silver tresses turned to look at her blond friend. There was a gulf of differences in their blue-eyed stares; one determined, resolute, and accepting, the other resigned, saddened, and devastated.

"Did it have to end like this?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"We'll never know. Take good care of yourself, promise?"

Tears continued to streak down the Queen's face, splashing down onto her ruined gown. She had never been able to hide her emotions…one of the many reasons why her subjects loved her so dearly.

"Venus…"

"I know."

The leader of the Inner Senshi hefted the great Sword of the Moon and stepped forward. To die in battle, as a warrior, was the highest honor a soldier could aspire to. So, why did she feel such complete emptiness inside? As she neared the end, what had her life been missing?

Sadly, Venus already knew the answer, understood how completely ridiculous it sounded, but even more depressing, knew that it was true.

Love.

It was what her home planet was known for, the one thing that was trumpeted from the high turrets of Magellan castle. What she supposedly fought for. The 'Senshi of Love' title always tasted bitter in her mouth, but she would never admit the reason. How could she fight for something she knew nothing about? How could she even begin to tell people what a hypocrite she was? What did that leave her to fight with?

As she watched her friends go before her, it occurred to her that she had nothing – no element, no power but her own will. She did not command any part of nature – left to fend for herself with the ideals of love and beauty, supplemented by her trusty chain and the stone Sword.

How could she hope to destroy the final rider with such a small arsenal?

From across the terrain, the sole remaining pair, a silver haired rider on a pale skeletal horse, moved ahead. His long locks flew out behind him like a banner, brilliantly lit against his dark cape.

She knew without hesitation what he would bring.

Death.

Had there not been enough of it already? Had they not witnessed their share of pain and blood and torture? Did he mean to kill everyone? To leave no person left alive?

And still he rode – a moving statue chiselled from the whitest marble – ironically, the perfect picture of masculine fitness and health.

The Venusian wondered – had _he_ ever been in love?

She quickly admonished herself – how could Death love anyone? How could Death become infatuated? Feel passion? Lust after someone? Did he even have a heartbeat? She looked at the rider's motionless face, into his cold quicksilver eyes, and knew she was imagining the impossible.

As the sound of pounding hooves swelled, she looked around and decided this was the place she would make her stand. She dug the Sword into the scarred earth beside her. In a fluid and practiced motion, she unhooked the chain from around her small waist and brought it to a ready position. Both weapons had been responsible for so much destruction. They had served her well in her quest to protect the Queen…to watch over the realms and keep regular citizens from evil like the one that was charging upon her.

Closer.

Nearer.

When he was almost on top of her, when she could practically reach out and touch the bony musculature of the stallion, she went into action.

With her chain, she was able to bind the bony fetlocks of the horse as it galloped by, forcing the rider tumbling to the ground. She didn't wait, didn't bother to see if he had survived the fall, and instantly went on the offensive. Out of habit, out of tradition, she winked and blew a kiss to no one, to begin the attack.

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"

The chain glowed brightly and then spiralled out in a blast of golden light and energy, snaking towards the injured man. She held her breath and waited, until, at the very last possible second, he rolled to the left.

She uttered a terse expletive and moved to smoothly pick up the Sword as he rose to a ready stance. He had no weapon, but Venus quickly decided he needed nothing but touch to kill a victim…and she was in his sights. Time seemed to stand still as she looked at his emotionless face and realized he was nothing what she thought the Grim Reaper would look like. Had these been different circumstances…she might have thought him coldly attractive.

Like two panthers, they circled fluidly around each other. His booted feet matched her stiletto heels as they kept a wary distance from each other.

From the hill above, Serenity looked down and suddenly saw a blur of action – she gasped for a breath, whispering a short prayer.

Venus raised her weapon and put all her remaining strength into the blow. She couldn't miss; she wouldn't back down. Her aim was true, she was successful…and he collapsed against her. With large hands and crushing fingers, he grasped her shoulders, the sharpened Sword pierced through him and burst out the other side. From the moment of contact, her cerulean eyes rolled up in her head, and her heart ceased to beat.

Serenity collapsed to her knees.

_AN: Um, should anyone feel so inclined to make these scenes into art…well, I wouldn't mind. _

_One to go._


	5. Epilogue

_AN: It's over now – thanks for riding along. If anyone wanted to write some sort of 'prologue' or side story of how the situation came to this, I'd love to read it._

_Don't own._

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**Four Horsemen**: _Epilogue_

_I turn my head to the east,  
I don't see nobody by my side.  
I turn my head to the west,  
still nobody in sight.  
So I turn my head to the north,  
swallow that pill  
that they call pride.  
The old me is dead and gone,  
the new me will be alright._

_I've been travelling  
on this road to long  
Just trying to find…  
my way back home  
The old me  
is dead and gone  
dead and gone…_

**_- Dead and Gone, T.I. (ft. Justin Timberlake)_**

Serenity looked silently at the dark wasteland in front of her; it seemed to stretch on for an eternity. On unsteady feet she picked herself up and walked towards the quartet of bodies that lay still on the ground. She dropped to her feet, and gently, tenderly stroked Venus's limp hair. Minutes ago it had been vibrant and full of life.

Now…

What would come next?

She turned and looked behind her. The once proud and shining Crystal Tokyo lay in ruins, and there was not much left of a population to rebuild it.

Why would she even care to?

The ideals on which the kingdom had been based upon were long gone – vanished like the lives in front of her. No amount of 'healing activation' could cure the ailments of this world. They had failed. Won the battle, but lost the war.

A light suddenly caught her attention. From the hill where the Four Horsemen arrived, she saw a golden glow. One she would recognize anywhere in the universe…and yet…there was something different about it. It still shown as brightly as ever, but the pure gold light was now stained with a darker color.

It couldn't be…

"Greetings, Serenity."

Gingerly retrieving the Sword of the Moon from its current location, she leaned heavily on its bloodied surface and stood up again, "Hello, Endymion."

"That's no longer my name." The man, dressed in a crisp tuxedo, utterly opposite to her own destroyed dress, walked casually down to meet her.

"What are you called now?" She asked her former lover, the man who had once upon a time been King of these lands.

"Hades."

"It suits you."

Hours of training, followed by pure instinct, triggered a quick change. Serenity blinked and transformed to her other persona – Eternal Sailor Moon. If Hades was surprised, his impartial face did not show a reaction. In the place of the Sword, stood her magnificent scepter and she was glad for its presence.

He tapped his cane on the ground and asked, "Did you not guess it?"

"What?"

"Who was behind all of this?" He gestured to the barren and gutted landscape around them.

"No."

"You never once considered me? I'm disappointed."

She remained perfectly still – managing to look royal, despite how terrified she was.

"Tsk, tsk," his familiar voice slid over her. "My true home, Elysion, exists deep within the Earth – it's where I draw my power from, surely you can see where I'm going with this."

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's not possible."

"Not possible that the Queen of Light and Justice would miss something so obvious?"

"But why destroy everything? Why not crawl back to your Hell and live there without bothering those of us on the surface?"

"Maybe I'm ready to expand my residence."

"I won't let you."

"What hope do you have?"

The magnificent staff, topped with a familiar incandescent jewel, began to glow in her hands, "This. My friends did not die for nothing – I will ensure their success, their legacy. You must know that."

He sighed, "For how long will you fight?"

"As long as it takes."

"We've done this dance before, you know." He looked up to the sky, "Years ago."

"Maybe the ending is different this time," she offered.

"Without evil, where is good?"

"Alone," she whispered.

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_AN: And...scene. I know, super dark, but then, it's good to push my limits. Thoughts?  
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